


my heart got caught on your sleeve

by mrsenjolras



Category: BBC Radio 1 RPF, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, Louis Tomlinson-centric, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21562198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsenjolras/pseuds/mrsenjolras
Summary: He rolls his eyes at himself. It’s all a fucking joke. If he wants to go out with Nick, he should be able to. If he wants to post pictures of his boyfriend on his Instagram, he should just do it. He’s nearly thirty years old and he’s still in the fucking closet. It’s pathetic. And what’s really stopping him?[Or: Louis Tomlinson decides to come out: a story in three acts.]
Relationships: Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 20
Kudos: 137
Collections: The Tomlinshaw Fic Exchange 2019





	my heart got caught on your sleeve

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this was written to fulfill the prompt: Established relationship! Nick und Louis have been together for a while, now Louis wants to come out. How, when, why is up to you!
> 
> i hope you enjoy it! thanks to the mods for running a great fest this year!!
> 
> title from the song of the same name by lucius

part one: the decision

Louis lets himself into the apartment quietly, letting out a sigh of relief at the familiar sights and smells of home. He’d been away for several weeks this time, in LA visiting Freddie and working on writing for the new album. And while it’d been great to spend time with his mates and family out there, he’d missed being with Nick and the pups every day. 

Almost as soon as he thinks of the dogs, he hears the _click_ of nails coming towards him on the floors, and he crouches down to say hello to Pig and Stinky. Nick comes out of their bedroom shortly after, looking soft and sleep-rumpled. “Hey,” he says softly.

“Hey,” Louis replies, standing up and walking over to Nick. Nick opens his arms wide, and Louis walks straight into them, sighing contentedly when Nick wraps him up in a hug. It’s definitely been too long since he’s had this. 

“How was the flight?” Nick asks softly, half muffled by Louis’ hair. 

“Too long,” Louis mutters. “Missed you.” 

“Missed you, too, love,” Nick says. “Want to go back to bed for a while?” 

“Please,” Louis says through a yawn, and Nick starts to walk them backwards through the flat towards their bedroom. He doesn’t let go of Louis the entire time, and Louis lets Nick hold him, lets Nick guide him to their bed and help him out of his travel clothes. Louis crawls into bed in his boxers, flopping against the pillows with a contented sigh. Nick climbs in on the other side, and Louis cuddles up to him immediately. 

“Hey,” he says, looking up at Nick. Nick turns to him and makes a curious noise. “I haven’t kissed you yet.” 

“And?” Nick asks, smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “What are you waiting for?”

Louis rolls his eyes before he leans in and kisses Nick. He keeps it soft and slow, because it’s been weeks and they have time for everything else later. They kiss for a long while, eventually tapering off into small pecks, heads laying on the same pillow. Louis pulls back after a while, the exhaustion from the travel catching up to him. He yawns a bit, and Nick brushes a light kiss against his chin. “Nap?” he says quietly, and Louis nods. 

“You’ll stay?” he asks, already burrowing his head into the pillow. 

“Of course,” Nick murmurs, and Louis drifts off to sleep. 

He wakes up again after barely an hour, the jetlag not letting him stay asleep for long. Nick’s still sleeping next to him, and Louis doesn’t get up just yet. He lies in bed, instead, and watches Nick sleep. Nick always makes fun of him, if he catches Louis at it, but Louis just loves how relaxed Nick is when he’s sleeping. Any other time, he can hardly sit still, always bouncing from one thing to the next. Louis loves that about him, but he also adores this side, the side that only he gets to see, every day. 

Nick shifts in his sleep, lets out a little breath. Louis smiles a little, almost rolls his eyes at himself for being too cheesy. But he’s also just _happy_ , and there had been a long time when he’d doubted if he could ever get there, to being happy without any strings attached, without something coming around the corner to ruin it all. 

Nick shifts again, and Louis watches as he slowly blinks his eyes open. He focuses on Louis and smiles when he sees Louis watching. “What?” he asks, voice rough with sleep. “Was I drooling?” 

“No,” Louis says. He can’t quite get the smile to leave his face. “I’m just thinking.” 

“About what?” 

“Just about my mum,” Louis says softly. He shakes his head when Nick’s face falls a little. “No, not sad. Just about how much she would’ve liked you.” 

Nick’s face softens, a small smile appearing. “Lou,” he says softly, but Louis cuts him off. 

“It sucks she’s not here to meet you, but. I know she’s watching, and she’s happy for me.” 

“Of course she is,” Nick says quietly. Louis leans in and brushes his lips against Nick’s softly. Louis doesn’t wait long to deepen the kiss, tugging at Nick until Nick rolls over him and presses him back into the bed. It’s been way, _way_ too long, Louis thinks as he starts to tug at the hem of Nick’s shirt. 

Time to start making up for lost time. 

*

Two days later, Louis’ lounging on their couch and debating whether it’s worth it to get up and walk to the kitchen for another drink when Nick comes in from work. 

“Hiya!” he calls out, and Louis peers over the back of the couch to watch him take off his jacket and reach down to give the dogs their pats hello. 

“Hey, babe,” Louis says. “Can you grab me a glass of water?” 

“Sure,” Nick says easily, and Louis listens to him hum to himself as he putters about in the kitchen. He comes into the living room with two glasses of water and a packet of biscuits under one arm. He hands one glass to Louis before sitting down on the couch himself, dropping the biscuits in between them. “Hi, love,” he says again, leaning in to give Louis a quick peck. 

“How was the radio?” Louis asks, bringing his socked feet up to rest in Nick’s lap. Nick shoots them a slightly disgusted look but makes no move to push them away, which makes Louis feel warm inside. 

“Same as always,” Nick says. “Played some songs, read the news, got the gossip, that sort of thing.” 

Louis hums. “Sounds nice,” he says, adjusting himself so he’s comfortable on the couch. He always feels more settled when Nick is home with him, less like he’s about to bounce off the walls from boredom or misplaced energy. 

“Oh,” Nick says, like he’s just remembering something. “It’s Pixie’s birthday get together tonight, so I’ll be out.” 

“Oh, that’s tonight?” Louis asks, feeling more alert than he did a few seconds earlier. “Who all’s going to be there?” 

“The usual crowd,” Nick says. “Daisy, Alexa, Henry, Aimee and Ian, the whole crew. I think Harry might come too, he said he’s in town.” 

“Sounds nice,” Louis says. He tries not to feel jealous that he can’t go. “Send my love to them all, okay?” 

“Of course,” Nick replies, pressing a kiss to Louis’ forehead. “I’m not sure when it’ll end, though, so you don’t have to wait up.” 

“Okay,” Louis replies, and he cuddles a bit closer to Nick on the couch. “You don’t have to go for a while, though, right?” 

“Right,” Nick says, so they stay curled on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. 

Hours later, Louis’ still sat on the couch, eating take away right out of the container and feeling sorry for himself. 

It’s ridiculous, he thinks, that he has to sit at home, hiding out, while Nick is out celebrating with their friends. He should be there, because Nick’s friends have become his friends now. He and Nick have been together for almost three years now, and Louis’ never able to go out with him, unless it’s at some industry party that they could feasibly both attend. Louis could never have gone to Pixie’s party, not just because no one thinks that he’s friends with Pixie, but also because Harry’s going to be there as well. And anytime Louis is in the same place as Harry, his Twitter and Instagram and the whole bloody Internet explode with theories about their relationship. It’s laughable, really, that all those people are so close yet so far from the truth about Louis. 

He rolls his eyes at himself. It’s all a fucking joke. If he wants to go out with Nick, he should be able to. If he wants to post pictures of his boyfriend on his Instagram, he should just do it. He’s nearly thirty years old and he’s still in the fucking closet. It’s pathetic. And what’s really stopping him? He’s at a point now where he shouldn’t give a fuck what other people think of him anymore. It’s not like when he was 18 and fresh off X Factor, watching every little thing he did or said to make sure people didn’t judge him. 

Louis gets off the couch and walks into the kitchen, grabbing a beer out of the fridge. He downs half the bottle in one go, trying to release some of the tension he’s feeling. He needs to talk to Nick when he gets back, because he thinks he might be about to make a decision that would probably change both their lives. 

* 

Nick stumbles in the door a few hours later, and Louis smiles when he notices that Nick is clearly tipsy. “Hello, love,” he calls out, and Nick smiles when he sees Louis curled with Pig on the couch. 

“Lou,” he says, and he flops down next to Louis on the couch. “Everyone missed you.” 

“Sorry,” Louis says, and he means it. There’s still a knot in his stomach, mostly from what he wants to tell Nick. “Are you tired?” 

“A bit,” Nick says through a yawn. Louis huffs a laugh. 

“Alright, let’s go,” Louis says, and he grabs Nick’s hand to pull him off the couch and down the hall to their bedroom. After they’ve changed and brushed their teeth, Louis lies down next to Nick on the bed. 

“Hey,” he says before Nick can drift off, “I want to tell you something.” 

“Hm?” Nick hums, turning his head toward Louis. Louis pokes at him until Nick opens his eyes halfway and looks at Louis. “What?”

“I think I want to come out,” Louis says softly.

Nick’s eyes open wider in surprise. “Really?” he asks. 

“Yeah,” Louis says. “We can talk more about it later, but. I want to do it.” 

“That’s amazing, Lou,” Nick says. “However you want to do it, or whenever, you know I’ll be here for you.” 

“Thanks,” Louis says quietly. He wants to tell Nick that he’s the reason Louis decided to do this now, but he knows Nick wouldn’t like that. Nick’s always told him that Louis should make the decision to come out for himself, not for anyone else. And Louis did, really, this was just as much about how tired he was of pretending as it was about how he hates making Nick hide himself. But Nick was also one of the biggest contributing factors to the decision, because Nick’s become such a big part of Louis’ life that Louis’ not sure he can really separate Nick from the choice to come out. He wants to do it for both of them, so that they can finally both be out and happy and together. 

“We’ll talk more in the morning, okay?” Nick says through a yawn. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Louis says, leaning up to press a kiss to Nick’s mouth. He closes his eyes and lets the sound of Nick’s breathing lull him to sleep. 

*

part two: the act

The day after Louis decides he wants to come out, he and Nick have a long talk about why he wants to come out now and what it’ll mean for their relationship. That was the easy part, since Nick is nothing but supportive and excited for Louis. 

After that conversation, Louis needed to tell his team, and those conversations were much more complicated than the one with Nick. They don’t try to discourage him from doing it, which part of Louis had feared, but they still want to iron out every single detail about the coming out. It means that Louis has been pulled into meetings that last longer than the ones he had planning out his album and tour. He goes home when they’re done to Nick waiting with a cup of tea at the ready. 

“How was it?” Nick asks, pulling Louis into a hug and pressing a kiss to the side of his head. Louis sighs out, finally able to relax. 

“Fucking terrible,” Louis says, and Nick makes a sympathetic noise. “Like, they’re fine with it, you know. They just want to talk the entire thing to death and plan for every possible outcome.” 

Nick hums. “Well, you could always just post a picture of us on Instagram. Take the whole situation out from under their noses.” 

Louis laughs a little. “What, shall I post one of your nudes?” 

“Oi!” Nick says. “Not that the public wouldn’t appreciate it, but I’m a taken man.” 

“Well, for now you are,” Louis says, and Nick gasps dramatically. 

“Oh, so you’re just coming out to find some young thing to hook up with, is that it?” 

Louis laughs again. “That’s exactly it, darling. You know I need someone spry to keep me entertained.” 

Nick throws a hand against his chest. “I’m wounded, love,” he says, and Louis laughs harder. He’s so grateful, in that moment, that he has Nick with him, to make this all easier for him. He leans in against Nick’s chest and rests his head on Nick’s shoulder. 

“Thanks,” he says quietly, and Nick hums. 

“Anytime, love.” 

“They want me to do an interview. In print somewhere, something that will handle it well. They think it’s better if I come out on my own first, then tell everyone that we’re together. I asked them for a bit of time first, though, so we can tell our families,” Louis tells him. 

“Sounds good,” Nick says. “My mum’s coming down next week for a visit, we can tell her then.” 

“Yeah,” Louis says. “I’ll need to tell the girls, too. Maybe we can go up on the weekend.” 

“Works for me. Also, like, our mates will kill us if we don’t tell them, too,” Nick says, and Louis rolls his eyes because he’s right. Their entire group of friends live most of their lives in each other’s pockets, and they would be getting phone calls left and right if Louis were to come out without giving them advance notice. 

“Yeah,” Louis says. “The team don’t want me telling too many people, but I figure we need to give a heads up to anyone who’s going to have paps knocking down their doors. Like, the lads all need to be warned, because you know they’ll face a lot of it.” 

Nick hums. “And they’re sure about you coming out on your own? People are going to think you’re with Harry.” 

Louis huffs an angry breath out through his nose. “Of course they are. But at the same time, I don’t care if they think I’m with Harry. They’re probably going to still think I’m with Harry even after I tell everyone I’m with you. I think we’ve just got to move on and stop paying them any mind. Maybe eventually they’ll leave us alone.” It had been something brought up in the meeting, but Louis’ just too tired to care. He wants this all over with already, wants to just be able to tell everyone that he loves Nick and Nick loves him and that’s the whole story. 

“Alright then,” Nick says. “We can have you on the radio after we’ve come out, yeah?” Louis smiles up at him. 

“Of course, whatever you want. And you can finally post me on your Instagram stories.” 

“Oh, thank God,” Nick says, “you have no idea how hard that has been for me.” Louis just laughs at him. 

*

That weekend, Louis and Nick go up to Doncaster to see Louis’ sisters. They’ve done this several times before, so they’ve perfected their drive--Louis gets to pick the music, Nick gets to pick the snacks, and they switch who’s driving halfway through. When they pull up in front of the house, Louis suddenly feels nervous. 

It doesn’t make sense, really, since Louis’ family has known about his relationship with Nick since about three months after they got together. But they’ve also been through a lot over the past few years, and Louis hates to think that this could make their lives even more difficult. 

“You alright?” Nick asks from the other side of the car, and Louis realises suddenly that they’ve been sitting in front of the house for a couple minutes. Nick hasn’t turned the car off, though, and he’s looking at Louis with concerned eyes. Louis takes a deep breath in, lets it out slowly. 

“Yeah,” he says, and then he repeats himself just to make sure. “Yeah, I am.” 

“Okay, let’s go,” Nick says, and then he turns off the car. 

Inside the house, it’s as chaotic as it always is. People are talking over one another, arguing, laughing. It’s a riot of noise, and Louis relaxes into it easily. He’s not sure why he was so nervous--this is his family, and they adopted Nick so smoothly into their fold. Louis sips at a beer and watches as Nick listens intently to Lottie’s latest makeup venture, and he feels a warm feeling spread in his chest. He wants to tell everyone how great Nick is with his family, how comfortable the girls are around him. 

A little later, Nick and Louis sit on the couch together, and Nick holds Louis’ hand as he tells the girls that he’s going to come out. There’s some questions, and some tears, but the girls are mostly just pleased for him. He hugs them all after, and Lottie holds him tightly when it’s her turn. 

“I’m proud of you, Lou,” she whispers to him. “I’m glad you’re finally letting yourself be happy.”

Louis doesn’t say anything--he _can’t_ say anything through the lump in his throat. He squeeze Lottie, and she smiles at him when they pull away. “It’ll be good,” she says. 

“Yeah, it will,” Louis agrees, and he finds he actually believes it. 

*

Several days after they tell Louis’ family, Nick’s mum comes for a visit. Louis’ always liked Eileen, because she’s got that same kind of no-nonsense Northern-ness that Louis’ own mum had. She always greets him with a hug and a “oh hello, pet” that brings a big smile to Louis’ face. 

Nick always goes a bit crazy when his mum is coming over, like he’s terrified she’ll see a dirty sock on the floor and start yelling at him. Louis secretly finds it hilarious, but Nick gets even more bent out of shape when Louis laughs, so he tries to hide it and just help Nick clean up. 

“Babe,” he says after Nick’s run his hands through his hair for the third time in as many minutes, “why are you so nervous? It’s just your mum.”

Nick sighs. “I know, I know, but this is so important for you, and I want to make sure it goes well.” 

“Why wouldn’t it go well?” Louis asks. Despite himself, he feels a knot start to form in his stomach. Eileen has always liked him, or so he thought, so he wasn’t nervous about telling her. Now, though, he wonders if there’s something Nick knows that he doesn’t, some reason that Eileen might react badly to the news that Louis wants to come out. 

“Not like that!” Nick rushes to say. He comes over to Louis’ side and takes his hand. “She loves you, she won’t mind at all. It’s just, I dunno, I’m nervous.” 

“Don’t be nervous, you’re making _me_ nervous!” Louis says, his voice gone a little high pitched. Nick presses a quick kiss to Louis’ forehead. 

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” he says. He takes a deep breath, and Louis mimics him. “She’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. I don’t know why I’m worried.” 

Louis opens his mouth to respond, but at that moment their buzzer goes and Nick springs back into action, rushing around to get his mum settled. 

It turns out they really hadn’t had anything to worry about, since Eileen just kisses Louis and Nick on the cheek and pretends she isn’t a little teary over the whole thing. They make dinner together afterwards, since they can’t exactly all go out. Nick starts taking pictures and videos to put up on his Instagram of his mum, of the dogs, of the dinner. Of everything, basically, except for Louis, who is always carefully cropped out of these things. 

It hits Louis, then, that this is probably the last time they’ll have to do this. Soon enough, they’ll be able to go out together. Nick can post pictures and videos of Louis anytime he wants, and Louis could do the same. They won’t have to worry about other people seeing something they shouldn’t, talking about things they shouldn’t. 

He smiles, going over to Nick’s side and wrapping his arms around him. Nick makes a surprised noise but he brings one arm down around Louis’ waist. “What’s up?” he asks. 

“Nothing,” Louis says, pressing his nose against Nick’s shoulder. “Just happy.” 

“Me too, love,” Nick says, dropping a kiss on Louis’ head. “Me too.”

*

Louis has the magazine interview on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. He’s never met the reporter, who introduces herself as Amarah, before, but she seems nice enough, and Louis knows she and her publication have been thoroughly vetted by his management. They talk for awhile about him and his writing process for the next album, but after a bit the interviewer clears her throat a bit. 

“So,” she says, taking a sip of her water, “I wasn’t exactly told why you wanted to do this interview. Have you got a new song coming out soon?” 

“Er, no,” Louis says. He takes a deep breath, because this is the moment. He’s got a phone full of supportive messages from his friends and family, though, and Nick is home waiting for him. So he bites the bullet. “It’s a more personal thing than that.”

“Oh?” she asks, moving her recorder slightly closer to him on the table. 

“Yeah. I’m, well, I’m in a relationship.” 

“Okay?” she says. It sounds like a question, which Louis understands. It’s not necessarily major news that he’s dating someone, and it’s certainly no reason to specifically request an article to be written. It’s the _gender_ of the person he’s with that matters.

“And, well, the person I’m with is a man.” 

“ _Oh_ ,” she says. Louis lets out a small laugh. 

“Yeah,” he says, “so, have you got some questions for me?” 

Amarah looks stunned for a moment, so Louis takes the opportunity to have a drink of his tea. She collects herself after a minute, looking down at her notebook and blinking rapidly. “Um, okay, so, first question is just...can we know who it is?” 

Louis laughs again, this time harder. “No,” he says with a grin. “Not yet, at least. I just really wanted everyone to know that I’m bisexual, and I’m dating a man, and I’m very happy.” 

“That’s great,” Amarah says. “Obviously you have a fan base that will be happy to hear that, and I know that many of them are members of the LGBT community as well. Did that factor into your decision to come out?” 

Louis pauses, thinks for a moment. “If I’m honest, not initially. I mean, I love my fans so much, and they’ve been there for me through a lot of shit. But when I was first thinking about coming out, I was really thinking about myself and what I wanted to do. I’ve felt that, throughout my career, what other people want or what they think about me has played a big role in the things I do or say. And I’m a bit tired of that, honestly. And I’ve been in this relationship for a while, and I just got tired of having to hide a part of myself, and especially having to hide the person I’m with. Because he’s great, and he’s been with me through some really tough times the past couple of years. He’s always supported me, and I really didn’t like that when I was closeting myself, I was closeting him as well. So that was really what first influenced my decision to come out. But it is great, as well, to know that there might be people out there that are struggling the same way I was, and that this might help them in some way.” 

“I have a feeling you’re going to be helping a lot of people with this,” Amarah tells him with a smile. 

Louis smiles back. “Well, that’s great, then.” 

*

part three: the aftermath

The time between Louis doing the interview and when it’s actually published is strange for Louis. It’s like a liminal space, where he has this massive weight off his chest but he still has to pretend for the public. He keeps having to catch himself, hold himself back from tweeting something to Nick or posting a picture with Nick in it. 

It feels like the longest three weeks of his life. He’s sure he’s driving Nick mad, with the way he’s practically bouncing around the house with restless energy. Nick doesn’t say anything, though, just smiles and kisses Louis on the head when he can finally sit still. 

“You alright?” Nick asks, as Louis settles against him on the couch. 

“Yeah,” Louis says. “It’s just weird. I want the article out already.” 

“I get it. But it’ll be out soon,” Nick says. “And then everything will get really crazy, and you’ll be wishing it was like this.” 

Louis turns and looks at Nick’s face, considering. “No, I don’t think I’ll regret it. I won’t miss having to hide all the time.” 

“Even when I make your life miserable by filming you all the time for my Instagram?” Nick asks. Louis leans in and presses a kiss against Nick’s cheek. He knows Nick’s trying to be funny, but he also knows that Nick had cried a little when he’d read the first draft of the article. It came through in the interview well enough, but Louis isn’t done letting Nick know how much he means to Louis, how Louis probably wouldn’t be doing this without him. 

“Even then,” he says, and Nick smiles brighter than the sun. 

*

Nick’s right: when the article drops, all hell breaks loose. Louis actually, slightly, breaks the internet (which Nick takes endless delight in), at least for a couple hours. He’s half impressed, half terrified by the fervor that his fans show in reaction to the news. He trends on Twitter for days, and there’s a near-constant outpouring of love and support from the vast majority of people on the internet. 

There are also a fair few people who say terrible things to him and about him, but he tries not to focus on that. He also tries to ignore the people who are passionately insisting that he’s actually dating Harry. It all does his head in quite a bit, and after a while he has to put his phone away and have Nick distract him from looking at it any more.

Shortly after the initial excitement over his coming out dies down, a whole new one starts up trying to figure out who his boyfriend is. The lads in the band are top contenders, with Harry well out in front. Some people also make claims for Oli, which makes Louis laugh so long he has to sit down. There are also a select few who say that it’s Nick, though they seem to think that more out of wishful thinking than actual facts. It makes Louis happy to know that people want them to be together, even if there’s also a pang of regret that he’d hid his life so well that there’s no hint that Nick is in it.

He shakes that thought off, though, because there’s no purpose in regretting the past. Soon enough, everyone will know about him and Nick, and there won’t be anymore secrets. It’s time to focus on the future. 

*

Three weeks to the day after his coming out, Louis knows it’s time to come out all the way. It’s time to end all the speculation and tell everyone the full truth: that he and Nick are in love and perfectly happy together. He lets his team know that he’s doing to do it, and then he spends a long time looking through his pictures of Nick to decide which one he wants to use. 

In the end, he decides on three photos. The first is of the two of them on the couch, the dogs lying with them. Louis’ laughing at something Nick said in the photo, and it’s always been one of Louis’ favorites, for how happy he looks. The second photo is one of Nick with Freddie, in Louis’ house in LA. They’re playing with some toy and Nick has the sweetest smile on his face as he looks at Freddie. It makes Louis’ heart warm to look at it. And the last photo is Nick with Louis’ family last Christmas, all of them in matching pajama sets with Santa hats on their heads. Louis thinks it’s a good selection, one that shows just how happy Louis is with Nick and how he’s a part of every aspect of Louis’ life. 

He puts them up on his Instagram. For the caption, he writes: _**I know you’ve all been wondering about this for a while. So here he is: @nicholasgrimshaw.**_ _**Thanks everyone for all the love and support xx**_

He posts it and turns his phone off for the next few hours. Nick tells him the photos are great--“all capturing my good side, love,”--and Louis kisses him silly. There’s a kind of relief flowing through him that he’s never felt before, not even after he did the initial coming out interview. It’s finally done, he and Nick are finally free to be themselves, out and in public. 

It’s only hours later, when Louis rolls over in bed and finally turns his phone back on, that he sees that Nick’s made a post of his own. It’s similar to Louis’ post: pictures of Louis in their flat, with his family, with all their friends. Some of them are pictures Louis’s never even seen before, which makes something warm flare up in his chest. The caption reads: _**i guess the cat’s out of the bag. i’m so proud of you @louist91 and i love you even when you leave your mugs of tea all over the flat.**_ Nick’s followed that up with a series of emojis, with the emoji of two men holding hands prominently featured.

Louis rolls back over and kisses Nick awake. “I love you,” he says when Nick makes a confused noise. Nick says it back, and Louis kisses him again. 

They’re just getting started.


End file.
